Last Chapter: Harry shivered. He paid for his wand, and Mr. Ollivander closed the door behind them with a bang as they exited his shop.
Chapter 7: And Back Again
The afternoon sun hung low in the sky as they made their way back down Diagon Alley.
Hagrid stopped outside Eeylops Owl Emporium & Magical Menagerie. "I havena' got yeh birthday presen's yet."
"Oh. Thank you, but Hagrid, you don't have to do that."
"I will, though. Come on, I'll get yeh owls. All the kids wan' owls, they're dead useful, carry your mail an' all."
Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under wing. Isabel was in raptures over her new barn owl. She kept thanking Hagrid again and again, until Harry stopped her.
Iz. You do it once. Watch me.
"Thank you, Hagrid." Harry smiled gratefully. "We've never gotten such wonderful presents before."
See?
Harry, you're a pain. I wanted to make sure he knew.
"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "An' I don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys."
They went back through the wall, and into the Leaky Cauldron, which was now bustling in comparison to earlier. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. There was a soft conversation between a young couple in a booth, and a louder, more strident one between three pompous wizards in purple robes in a side table/ The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; some waved and smiled at him. Before any of them saw the twins, Tom appeared. The bartender was over the moon to see the twins again. He vaulted over the bar. "Everyone," he announced dramatically, 'I present, the Potter twins-in the Leaky Cauldron." He bowed in their direction.
Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at them. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.
Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron, while Isabel signed autographs. Every once in a while, people would grab them and pose with them for photos.
"Doris Crockford, Mr Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."
"So proud, Miss Potter, I'm just so proud."
"Hey, Atticus, take a photo!"
"Sign here, and can you say "Dear Ruthie, Be Brave", and sign it "One Half Of The Potter Twins?"
"Always wanted to shake your hand — I'm all of a flutter."
"Delighted, Miss Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."
"I've seen you before!" said Isabel, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."
"She remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? She remembers me!"
Harry shook hands again and again — Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.
But the crowd surrounding the twins wasn't thinning, and the twins began politely panicking, surrounded by adults who wanted to get closer.
This is scary.
You need to cut a fringe.
And change our last names?
Maybe. If necessary.
We'll ask Hagrid.
It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make him-self heard over the babble.
"Must get on — lots ter do. Come on, guys."
Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid put a protective arm around each twin and led them through the bar.
The twins were in shock as they walked down the road; they didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the owls asleep in their cages on Harry and Isabel's laps. Harry only realized they had arrived at the station when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder. "I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," Hagrid said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.
He headed for a neon sign advertising burgers.
"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.
He bought them each a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow. Normal-boring.
#*~*#
Isabel was pretty sure she was still trembling. All the people crowding her and demanding pictures, handshakes, autographs, had given her a bad scare. She wasn't used to being the centre of attention-unless it was a bad thing.
She asked "Hagrid, do you think we could keep who we are a secret? Change our names, maybe hide our scars?"
Hagrid looked doubtful. "I see why yeh'd wanna. Bu', frankly, I think tha' people will know who yeh are. Eleven year ol' twins who look like James and Lily Potter? People know who yeh are, and they expec' yeh to be at school this year…People will figger it out, and then there'll be lots of drama, an' you'll get more attention. Be'er that you just be Bel an' Harry, The Twins Who Lived, rather than bein' Bel an' Harry, those kids who lied to everyone."
"You make a point," Isabel said slowly.
Does he?
Yes. If we lie to people, they'll be angry. And people would get more excited at the headline saying: "REVEALED: TWINS TURN OUT TO BE POTTERS: Lying twins hide their identity" than the one saying "POTTER TWINS START SCHOOL". Isabel had no doubt there would be headlines after today's experience. Mr Ollivander had been the only one who had guessed who they were and hadn't started bowing.
Yeah. Still, anonymity has allure.
They looked at Hagrid.
"I guess we maybe better not hide, then. Are you sure, though? What if no one really cares about us? Could happen." He looked hopeful. "I mean, it's not like we even remember what we did. In fact," he went on, warming to his topic, "it's worrying. Everyone thinks we're special. But we're not."
No offense, Iz.
None taken, Harry.
"Yeh are special. Yore wizards. Yore nice kids, polite an' stuff. Anyway, if no one cares about yeh, yeh won't need to hide, will yeh?"
"Good point."
"So we won't hide."
"But we won't try and attract attention, either."
Hagrid glanced at his watch-a silver dented monstrosity, covered odd symbols and hands with what looked like planets orbiting the face.
"Shoot! Look, I gotta go. Yeh guys get on this train in an hour," he pulled out a train timetable out and tapped it, "and here are yore tickets. And then, on September firs', yeh get on the Hogwarts Express. Platform 9 ¾ , Kings Cross. Train leaves at eleven o'clock. And here," he dug in his pocket frantically, "are the tickets fer that."
He practically sprinted off.
Isabel pocketed the tickets and the timetable.
What can we do in an hour?
Harry pulled out his bag of Galleons.
They have a currency exchange desk at Gringotts, and I paid it a visit while you and Hagrid were arranging the mail-order thing. Why don't we go shopping?
#*~*#
They got home at four o'clock, having had to walk to Privet Drive with their trunks and owl cages. They stopped outside No. 4.
Do we absolutely have to go back?
Sorry, Iz.
Are you sure?
Sorry, Iz.
Harry pushed open the gate and they walked up the garden path.
#*~*#
Aunt Petunia opened the door. She squeaked at the sight of them.
"Vernon! They are back."
From inside the house, Dudley gibbered in terror.
Harry caught a glimpse of him bolting upstairs, hands firmly clasped over bottom.
Iz! Look! There he goes.
What? Where?
Dudley. He was running and holding his butt.
Oh, I can't see him. Darn.
#*~*#
Uncle Vernon was livid. He was so mad he was stuttering
"AND TH-THEN YOU LEAVE US STRANDED-D-D ON THAT B-BLOODY ISLAND! YOU…FREAKS! YOU AND, AND, AND YOUR FREAK FRIEND! WE HAD T-T-TO CALL THE COASTGUARD ON P-PETUNIA'S PHONE AND-D HE SAID THAT WE WERE LANDLUB-LUBBBERS! AND THEN YOU HAVE THE CH-CH-CHEEK TO WALK B-BACK IN HERE LIKE YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO ENTER TH-THIS HOUSE? YOU, YOU…" he looked around for Aunt Petunia, but she was upstairs trying to convince Dudley to unlock his bedroom door and stop that noise, darling, Mummy won't let them hurt you.
So, without the option of collapsing into his chair and letting Aunt Petunia get him a brandy, Uncle Vernon advanced on the twins.
But the twins had had lots of time to plan for this. Isabel pulled her wand out of her found his wand sticking out of his back pocket.
"Never," Harry whispered, trying to emulate Hagrid from earlier, "lay a hand on either of us, ever again."
"Or," Isabel waved her wand enthusiastically, "we'll make you and your son match."
Uncle Vernon backed away.
#*~*#
The weeks that followed were the best of the twins' lives to date.
Harry slept in every morning, but Isabel couldn't shake the early-rising habit. They cooked themselves three proper meals a day. They stayed up late all night reading their class books, although Isabel read them all in a week and had to start on Dudley's discarded books. Both pronounced their class books fascinating, even Isabel who had read them twice, having finished Dudley's books.
The Dursleys ignored them completely. No haircuts for Harry.
It was wonderful.
#*~*#
They named their owls Hedwig and Juno. Isabel named Juno after some Roman goddess, and Harry found the name Hedwig in A History of Magic. Hedwig and Juno had become best friends after a bumpy start. Now, instead of bumping each other out of the sky, they went on hunting trips together and tried to give each other the biggest piece of mouse carcass. Harry imagined that owl conversations went like:
"You have it."
"Oh, I couldn't possibly. You have it."
"Are you sure? Why don't you have it?"
"Oh, thank you."
Unfortunately, the owls were not the cleanest eaters, and at least half of each mouse carcass ended up on the floor. It was lucky that the Dursleys steered clear. Harry knew that if Aunt Petunia had caught him and Isabel sneaking the carcasses out with gloves and a shovel, she would forget her fear of magic and kick the owls out.
#*~*#
On the 31st of August, Isabel and Harry broke their pattern of ignoring the Dursleys.
We'd better tell them about Kings Cross tomorrow. Got your wand?
Ready to go.
The Dursleys were watching some reality TV show about beauty queens stranded on a desert island. On the screen, Daneca was sobbing about missing her boyfriend Jace, met two days before the show. "It's so-sob, sniff-hard. Because I love him, so –sob- much. And when we're apart…" She broke down.
Isabel coughed politely.
The Dursleys ignored her.
Isabel stood in front of the TV.
The Dursleys ignored her.
Isabel pulled out her wand.
The Dursleys scrambled over each other to the nearest exit, saw Harry standing there, and stopped.
"Hey! We just want to talk!" Isabel tutted. "Can you please take us to Kings Cross tomorrow at half past ten?"
That gives us half an hour to get our stuff on the train.
Yeah, okay.
Uncle Vernon glared at Isabel.
"Wouldn't take you, but we're going anyway."
"You are? Why?"
All of the Dursleys seethed at Isabel's impudence, but eyed her wand.
"Gotta get that ruddy tail removed before Dudley goes to Smeltings."
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